The
attack in the international waters of the Mediterranean in the early hours of May
31
by an elite force of the Israeli navy on the Turkish – flagged Mavi Marmara civilian ferry crammed
with more
than 700 international activists, including several Americans, carrying
100 tonnes
of cargo including concrete, medicines and children’s toys, and leading
five
smaller vessels of the Free Gaza Flotilla, which left eight Turks and a
U.S.
citizen of Turkish origin dead and wounded several others, has cornered
the
United States in a defensive diplomatic position to contain the regional
and
international fallout of the military fiasco of the “Operation Sky Wind”
its
Israeli regional ally launched against the flotilla; it “puts the United
States
in an extremely difficult position,” Marina
Ottaway
wrote in a report published by Carnegie
Endowment for International Peaceon May 31.

Containing
angry Arab reaction and adverse repercussions on Arab – U.S. relations
was most
likely on the agenda of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s meeting with
Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on
Monday. However
Biden is the least qualified to allay Arab anger for being the most
vocal among
U.S. officials in
“legitimizing” Israel’s
blunder. The Gaza flotilla episode has dispelled
the benefit of doubt the Arab allies have given to President Barak
Obama’s
promises of change in U.S.
foreign policy in their region. To regain Arab confidence it needs more
than U.S. official
visits whether by Biden or by a better choice because at the end of the
day
politics is not about “good intentions”, but is rather about “good
deeds,”
according to the Egyptian veteran political analyst Fahmy Howeidy.

Despite
a pronounced belief to the contrary by U.S. Senator Kerry, the Chairman
of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the head of Israel’s
Mossad, Meir Dagan, was more to the point when he said last week that
“Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the
United States
to a burden.” Earlier this year CENTCOM Commander General David Petraeus
told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “Arab anger over the
Palestinian
question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with
governments
and peoples in CENTCOM's area of operations and weakens the legitimacy
of moderate
regimes in the Arab world.” Israel
seems determined to complicate Petraeus’ mission further.

Washington
has found its diplomacy faced with an Israeli fait accompli to be
involuntarily
embroiled in what the Israeli media harshly criticized as a tactical
failure,
which engulfed the U.S. administration in the roaring Arab and Muslim
anger to
be accused of being a partner to the Israeli adventure, thus fueling
anti –
Americanism in the same arena where the administration is doing its best
to
defuse and contain the anti – Americanism that was escalated by the
invasion of
Iraq in 2003, i.e. among U.S. regional allies. Once more, the Free Gaza
Flotilla episode “will raise questions —not for the first time—over
whether (Israeli
Prime Minister Binyamin) Netanyahu can be a dependable partner for the
United States,”
Michele Dunne wrote in a Carnegie Endowment report.

Ironically,
the fiasco of the Israeli “Operation Sky Wind” has created a snowballing
conflict not between Israel and its self-proclaimed arch enemy Iran, but
with
Turkey, traditionally Israel’s only regional friend, a key regional
power, a
NATO member, a U.S. ally and a hopeful of EU membership, as well as with
the
U.S. – allied camp of Arab and Palestinian moderates, whom both Israel
and the
United States endeavor to recruit in a unified anti – Iran front and who
are
their partners in the U.S. – sponsored Arab – Israeli “peace process,
which
Washington is now weighing in heavily to resume its Palestinian –
Israeli
track.

Israel is
not making U.S. life easier in the region.
“That's it, Israel.
Put your best friend on the spot, with stupid acts of belligerency, when
hundreds of its sons and daughters are dying fighting your avowed enemy.
It is
time Israel realized that it
has obligations to the United
States,” wrote Anthony Cordesman, an analyst
at the mainstream Center for Strategic and International Studies in
Washington (CSIS). Stephen Walt, a Harvard international-relations
professor
and co-author of the 2007 book, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign
Policy,” agreed.
Professor of International Relations at New York University, Alon Ben
Meir,
concluded in American Diplomacy on May 10th: “The Netanyahu government
seems to
miss-assess the changing strategic interests of the United States in the
Middle
East, especially in the wake of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

However
official Washington so far acts and speaks in a way that would contain
adverse
fallout of the Free Gaza Flotilla episode on bilateral relations with
Israel,
otherwise it would make a bad situation worse if one is to remember that
the
episode made Netanyahu cancel a summit meeting with Obama - after he was
forced
to cut short his visit to Canada - that was scheduled specifically to
mend bilateral
fences. But the motion which was unusually “personally” presented to the
Israeli Knesset by the opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, for a
no-confidence vote
in Netanyahu’s government on Monday because, as she said, “the current
government doesn’t represent the State of Israel to the world” and hurts
“ties
with the United States” made public what the U.S. administration has
been
trying to keep away from the spotlights. Trying to defuse the
repercussions of Israel’s blunder, the U.S.
leaned on Israel “quite a
lot” to release hundreds of Turkish peace activists who were on board ofMavi Marmara, Turkey’s
Deputy Under Secretary for public diplomacy Selim Yenel told The
Jerusalem
Post on Thursday. Fueling anti – Americanism among Arabs and Muslims
is
absolutely not in the interests of the United States, but this is
exactly
what current Israeli policies boil down to. Soaring Israeli – U.S.
relations
further was the first casualty of the Israeli attack.

Disrupting
U.S. regional strategic
plans was the second U.S.
interest threatened by the attack. Both sides of the Arab and Turkish –
U.S.
alliance find themselves now on the opposite side of the Arab – Israeli
conflict, which was on the verge of an historic breakthrough on the
basis of
the U.S. – sponsored so –called “two – state solution”, which enjoys the
support of the major world powers thanks only to all of them being on
the same
side. The U.S. – led Middle East camp seems now fractured and divided.
The
opposite camp led by Iran
and Syria
seems more confident and united. The U.S. position is weaker and their
stance is stronger. Washing seems to loose the initiative in the region
to its
adversaries thanks to Israel
initiating a conflict with U.S.
moderate allies. For Israel
and its U.S.
advocates this should flash a red light.

In
this context, U.S. presidential peace envoy to the region, George
Mitchell, who
unfortunately was already in the region trying, unsuccessfully yet, to
overcome
the adverse reaction of these same allies to other Israeli blunders,
should
have lamented his Israeli bad luck and regretted his mission. General
Secretary
of the Arab League, Amr Mousa, said that “everything” is now left
“hanging in
the air,”, including mainly the Palestinian – Israeli “proximity talks,”
the
focus of Mitchell’s mission.

In
the wider context, the emergency meeting of the Arab foreign ministers
in Cairo on June 2 was in direct opposition to the U.S. stance vis-à-vis
the Israeli attack, in
terminology, perspective and demands, but specially as regards the U.S. –
Israeli justifications for continuing the
blockade of Gaza.
To make their message for lifting the siege clear, Mousa was scheduled
to visit
Gaza next week.
Without naming the U.S.,
they stressed that the continued support to Israel “by some states” and
giving
“immunity” to its disrespect of international law “in a precedent that
threatens the whole international system .. is a big political mistake.”
They
reiterated that the Arab Peace Initiative “will not remain on the table
for
long.” 60 percent of Arabs now believe Obama is too weak to deliver a
peace
agreement, according to a recent poll conducted by YouGov and quoted by
The Christian
Science monitor on June 4.

The
Arab hard core of the U.S.
assets of moderates is the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC); in
a
statement, they condemned the attack as an act of “state terrorism.”
Kuwait, a member, stands among them as an instructive
example of how Israel
is fueling anti – Americanism. This country which hosts some twenty
thousand
U.S. troops on reportedly one third of its territory in support of the
U.S. –
led “Operation Iraqi freedom” had sixteen of its citizens on board of
the
Israeli - attacked Mavi Marmara. In response, in a vote by
consensus
the Kuwaiti parliament in which the cabinet ministers are members
recommended
withdrawal from the Arab Peace Initiative. With Iran
across the Gulf and the explosive situation across its northern borders
with Iraq, the echo
of General Petraeus’ warning reverberates louder here.

Thirdly,
the Israeli attack has split the Turkish and U.S. NATO allies into
opposite
sides of the international ensuing divide. Ankara
found itself in a head to head diplomatic clash not with Israel, but
with the U.S.
in the United Nations Security Council, the Geneva
– based UN Human Rights Council and the emergency meeting of NATO, where
Washington acted as Israel’s mouthpiece and attorney. Turkey is now for
the first time experiencing
the U.S. double standards
and pro – Israel
biased policy, which the Arabs have been victims for decades. It might
be
interesting to note here that both Turkey
and Greece, two U.S. and NATO allies, have set aside their
historical hostility to each other to publicly disagree with the U.S. in
their defense of breaking the Israeli
siege of Gaza.
“The US response to Israel’s disproportionate use of violence
against innocent civilians constitutes a test case for US credibility in
the Middle
East,” wrote Suat Kiniklioglu, the Turkish ruling party’s deputy
chairman.

In
the same Carnegie Endowment’s report, director of the Middle East
Program
Marina Ottaway expected potential adverse repercussions beyond the
Middle East. “In addition to the predictable Arab
reaction, … there has been a harsher than normal response from European
countries. This could potentially reopen U.S.
tensions with Europe that developed during the Iraq war and have slowly
begun to
heal under the Obama administration,” she wrote.

How
could any sensible observer interpret this adverse fallout on U.S.
foreign relations and on Arab and Turkish –
U.S.
relations in particular as only the result of bad luck or an
unintentional
Israeli tactical mistake? The only other interpretation to justify
Israel’s resort to bloody force is that Israel could no more tolerate a
regional united
Turkish, Arab and U.S.
peace front, supported by the world community.

By
aborting an international peace mission sponsored by moderate Arab and
regional
states, Israel sends a clear
message that it wants them out of the game and prefers instead to deal
only
with pro - violence players, which vindicates a popular Arab belief,
established over decades of the conflict, that Israel understands only
the language
of force.

Israel
knows very well that its belligerency has been all
along the main source of regional anti – Americanism. The U.S. knows it
too. Repercussions of the Israeli attack seem to hit at the heart of
what
President Obama in mid – April declared as a “vital national security
interest
of the United States,”
i.e. solving the Arab – Israeli conflict. By escalating militarily and
responding disproportionately, the extremist right – wing government of
Israel
is premeditatedly acting with open eyes to preempt the evolution of a
united
regional and international front in consensus on a two –state solution
for the
conflict; the best way to split the already burgeoning consensus is to
fuel
regional anti – Americanism as a tested ploy to disintegrate whatever
Arab,
Turkish and U.S. front might develop to pressure it into yielding to the
dictates of peace.

U.S.
traditional pro – Israel
diplomacy has been all along playing in the hands of Israeli extremists,
but
this time against declared strategic U.S. interests. Nonetheless,
Washington acts as if on intent to pursue a self –
defeating policy; its biased foreign policy and double standards are
antagonizing regional allies, but more importantly contributing to
Israel’s
fueling of regional anti – Americanism.

Iran had
no role whatsoever in the peaceful mission of the
Gaza free
Flotilla. Spotlight was kept focused on major Turkish, Arab and European
civilian peace activists, who came from Europe, United States,
Australia, and
Turkey; major Arab input came from Kuwait, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon and
Yemen,
all of them U.S. allies. Even Syria, which is accused of being an ally
of Iran,
has kept relatively a low profile in the whole episode and had no role
in the
mission either, although it spearheaded the opposition to the U.S. role
in the
aftermath during the emergency meeting in Cairo of the Arab foreign
ministers. Israel could in no way authentically claim the flotilla
mission had any Iran
connection to justify its high seas blunder. Neither the organizers
would allow
any such role. Co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement's 69-year-old
U.S.-born
engineer, Greta Berlin, was quoted by AP on June 4 as saying the group
has
shunned donation offers from Iran
and said the group doesn't accept donations from radical groups or
states.
Similarly, the de facto government of Hamas in Gaza
has shunned a suggestion by the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
to
provide “protection” for future similar flotillas.

Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Bir Zeit, West Bank
of the
Israeli – occupied Palestinian territories.